Life has taken on a new pattern, a new meaning. I’m suddenly dedicated to my work, and I don’t think its a bad thing. It’s certainly producing results, and I don’t think I should complain. I’m starting to realize the price of hard work, and the pay off is always an immensely satisfying high that I’m not sure I can describe.
This past Monday, I had a job consultation/advising session with a representative of NPR. I put together my best clips, wore a really amazing blouse and somehow nailed it. The representative, though not offering a job immediately, told me I should apply for the Summer 2010 cycle and to list her as one of my fans in my cover letter. Exciting.
Next Monday, I am interviewing in a similar style as a contender for the Hearst Fellowship. Though this is a fantastic opportunity and I will actually get paid more than a stipend, I’m somehow less excited and more nervous. I know that many student journalists would dream of this chance, but I more or less think that NPR is going more towards the future. In terms of Hearst, we’re not entirely sure how long the Chronicle will be holding on, or any other paper on their roster for that matter. Though I will take anything that I can get, I will say that Hearst would have sealed the deal with me if the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was still in print.
This past week was crazy news week. The storm that flew in from the Pacific rocked our campus like no other, and I was able to get a breaking news clip underneath my belt for the first time this semester. I managed my team extremely well and put everyone in the right places, and I’m proud of myself for handling a news event in such a calm and intelligent way. I’m proud of my work thus far with [X]press, and I think it’s only going to get better.
The Bay Area edition of the New York Times premiered today, and I gotta say I love it. I also love that its only 2 days a week, since I will totally be able to afford it every week. It’s going to be great — I already really like the wine article and the article on the new police chief in Oakland. I’m aiming high, but I’ve got my eyes on the prize as far as that paper is concerned. Hopefully I’ll get my foot in the door someday.
I also just discovered the New York Times Reader. I’m kind of amazed that this hasn’t been talked about more. It backs up the latest 7 days of news content — including photo slideshows and videos — and you don’t have to be connected to the internet to use it. Its $14.95/month for the whole version, and I think I want to subscribe. This thing is blowing my mind right now!
On a rather solemn ending note, Tom showed me this photographer’s photos of what the albatross actually survives on. Frightening, but sobering. If you have a weak stomach, exercise caution before clicking ahead. You’ve been warned.

hey everyone! i’m pretty sure i’m back. considering that i spend a lot more time at home now [because my roommates are AMAZING!] and the fact that i haven’t got jack shit to do until september, you’ll be hearing from me again.
first of all, my new place is awesome. huge, cozy and beautiful, i’m working on turning my room into a little bungalow. i just got my desk this past weekend, and everything is falling into place. although i may only be here for a year, i want it to feel like my place. my roommates, tom and daniella, are hilarious. i’ve forgotten how nice it is to have friends for roommates and to be able to come home for a long day and just get blitzed.
second, i’m managing editor of the paper next semester! i ended this run of the paper with a bang and i’m ready to work my magic on publication next semester. i’m probably going to be stressed, but i can’t deny what i’m good at, no matter how insane it makes me.
and my new job! i basically sit on my ass and listen to music all day and its amazing. i’m working four days a week, which is going to be the perfect amount for being able to
summer is getting off the ground finally. i have been waiting for it to hurry the fuck up forEVER because of some things that happened in the beginning, but it seems to finally have caught up with my spirit. i’m hanging out with tons of people this week and its already improving my mood.
last night, i went to see camera obscura at the fillmore and it was AMAZING. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. i’m pretty sure we caught most of the set, but we ran in mid-song, so i’m hoping that we caught everything. that girl is fucking adorable. i really want to hang out with her and write songs and drink tea and stay up really late joking about boys. yeah, that kind of adorable.
i was a little drunk, but this is what i can remember of the setlist:

“away with murder”
“swans”
“my maudlin career”
“french navy”
“james”
“lloyd i’m ready to be heartbroken”
“lets get out of this country”
“eighties fan”
“books written for girls”
“i don’t want to see you”
“teenager”

there may be a few that i’ve forgotten, but that was the gist of it, which was great. all the songs i wanted to hear, especially “eighties fan”, are all on there. i just tried to upload some of their tunes for you, but mediafire is being a cuntbag right now. i wish i would have bought a t-shirt or something to wear with my skirt and heels, but you know how the fillmore is when you’re trying to get out — its like trying to fit a fat girl in a smart car.
yesterday was also choice, since i got to go to the uptown AND weird fish, all in the same night. their vegan smorgeshborg of deliciousness is still keeping my belly full the next day. also, my company was extremely enjoyable — i hope i get to go out with him again.
until next time, catch up with me at stu’s site. i’ve written some pretty hilarious shit since we last spoke, and i think it deserves a read. :]

i’ve had a lazy day and a great week. first of all, lets get started with ootrff:

since i started wearing sneaks again after acquring my court forces, i’m all about them now. i’m thinking about buying more and more pairs everyday. the special coraline dunks are super pretty [doesn’t that movie look adorable?] and these married to the mob tributes to chanel are gorg. i want em all right now

the indie mart is back! i’m thinking about doing a preview in the paper for it. i’m pretty stoked, since i missed the christmas one. i’m hoping to save a little cash so i can maybe go shopping — they always have pretty cool vendors.

going out to eat. dammit, it will be the best of me, but i don’t care. i love trying new places and i’m determined more and more to try different types of food. i’m still wanting to go to mission street food hardcore.

i think i’m staying in tonight. after getting baked today and going to stuart’s house and eating way too much [fuck dude, i realized how much i ate after i left and its a little worrisome. it could be because i didn’t eat anything but an apple in the morning but shit. hahaha.], i’m pretty tired, sleepy, full and happy. i want to go out, but a lot of my friends are hanging with people i don’t want to hang with or they already have plans with others. plus, its fucking storming out and its been scattered showers all day, which sucks. i feel like i have been wearing the same outfit for the last month because its the only thing that i can wear in layers and i look semi decent. on top of that, i’m flat broke and still trying to go to the grocery store. [though i seem to be avoiding it like crazy.]
this week’s issue was awesome, if you go to state and you get a chance to pick it up, do so. my section looked really good and had little errors in it. a lot of the stuff in the news section ended up looking horrible, but that’s alright. the only thing going in my portfolio is my page.
i need to meet new dudes and people, its one of those feelings coming up again. it happens every time i go through a breakup, i think. which is good, that should be the rule for everyone. i’m just so bad at going out and talking to random people by myself. and i’m convinced that i don’t really look approachable. i’m trying to work on it, but i think a lot of people get intimidated, which i hate.
also, i’m selling tickets for noisepop on craigslist! help a girl out and get cheaper tickets! i’m willing to negotiate.

i went to battle and came back with an awesome page. i’m really stoked for this week’s issue and i’m hoping everyone else is, too. its amazing what kind of possibilities can happen when you get your work done ahead of time.
i was just trying to type out how i felt about things on my typewriter but i kept messing up. i’m still getting used to all the buttons and things that are very new to me. which it strange. cause its old.
regardless, i really want to start filling all my journals. i own and have so many for everything but they’re never full. always a quarter, or half. i even have some that are three-quarters full and that’s even more maddening.
i have about $160 in my bank account for the rest of the month. that should be fun.
i also think that the [x]press disease bag [aka the newsroom] totally exploded on me and i might be getting sick. i’m hoping to fight it off so i can go to some awesome bars on saturday.
i did my laundry for the first time yesterday at my laundromat and it felt strange, but really really good.
i’ve been in a bad sushi mood lately. [bad sushi = americanized sushi.]
more coherent and happy thoughts later. cause i love my life right now.

this week has been hectic. i was putting out fires at the paper all week, not eating and then overeating, not getting any sleep and not seeing any of my friends. i almost broke up with my boyfriend at school yesterday, while sitting two tables away from some really close friends.
i don’t know what is wrong with me. i really need to find a routine that doesn’t stress me out while i’m in production. since the weekends are pretty much the only time that i have any moments to myself, i need to find ways to cope. its not that i don’t want to be there every step of the way with the paper, but i also need to not drive myself to the point of insanity. i was so stressed out last night that i smoked a joint at school. i thought that i would never do that, but i was just so overwhelmed that i did it. and i don’t want to be that kid anymore, the one that gets high before class and makes grades and thinks its fucking hilarious. idk. i want to keep weed out of the picture for the moment.
in other news…american apparel got stopped! how awesome is that?
anyway, i’m still waiting for my tshirt to come in. c’mon print liberation, don’t let me down!
tomorrow is going to be a much needed day of errands and running around the city. hopefully i’ll run into someone? i’m hoping so.
and i got my financial aid money! YESSS. 😀
expect pictures soon. i’m sorry i haven’t been busting them out as frequently [or posts for that matter], but i’ve been in the newsroom all week and the last thing i need is a gig of pictures from those arrogant assholes.
what did you do this week?

sigh.
finally, i can update. i have had a great amount of fun, but the last week has also been a lot of work.

my bro with his bff.

the weekend with aaron was super fun — we ate a lot, we hung out and drank together, we shopped and walked around the city. he met some of my closest friends finally, which was super awesome. they made him feel welcome and he loved sf so much that he is actually considering moving here! he said he will be up at the beginning of june right after his birthday. it will be perfect since it will be super sunny — it rained all weekend when he was here and that was a bit of a buzzkill, but we still had fun! my friends can’t wait until he comes back.
and as much as i had fun all weekend, i started school bright and early on monday morning. i spent 13 HOURS at school on monday. 13! it was insane. and i was one of the more organized editors. but things are shaping up quite nicely and i’m super stoked about manning the page. the first issue is going to kind of suck, but i’m pretty sure that all the future issues are going to be on point and really awesome. i will try to post the pages if i can — the designer for the paper, erika, is working really hard to make them look amazing.
other than that, school is looking like just another semester. my homework doesn’t seem too hard, my teachers seem like they’re trying to be intimidating in all the wrong kinds of ways and i’m already bored. but i only spent $80 on books this semester [that’s such a record, its ridiculous], so not a lot of reading is always good.
i’m finally having a chill night after a hectic week — being up at 6am and then going to bed after 1 every night for 5 nights is not exactly heaven. i can’t sleep in tomorrow, either — i want to make breakfast, go to the gym, go around the city, write people and catch up on life after i’ve been living in a hole for a week. i think fridays are going to be reserved strictly for getting inspired. i mean, you wanna be inspired always, don’t you? DON’T YOU?
also, i’m stoked on literary journalism.
fin.

today has been infinitely better. i’m updating right before i pick up my brother at the airport — yay! — and its going to be a weekend of madness. i still have so much work to do, but i’m not going to let it get in the way of my last days of freedom. i’m kind of sad that i’m not going to be able to go out with my friend daniella for drinks tonight on her birthday [shout out, woo!], since she’s going to some north beach haunts that i love. nonetheless, i am super excited that my bro is almost here!

chilaquiles!

i forgot to mention yesterday that i had the gnarliest chilaquiles ever with stuart. we went to this diner on mission that was super dodgy from the outside, but when we got inside, it was one of the cleanest places i’ve been to in the mission. they actually had toilet seat covers in the bathroom! i was impressed. i’ll definitely go back and give you guys for some more deets — dodgy but awesome diners are amazing. also, all of that food [which you can’t tell by the polaroid, but it was such a HUGE plate] only cost $5.95! insane!
i spent most of the day in one of my favorite cafe’s in the city with daniella, doing crazy work for the paper. i’m still a little scared as far as what is going to happen, since i’m not satisfied with a majority of the writers and i haven’t finished all of the content. i want this to be the best it can possibly be, but i’m a perfectionist. it will always be the death of me. so hopefully the first issue won’t be totally horrid.
i’m totally in love with everything upper playground — i try not to go by there too often because i always get the need to spend money. i’m mad cause i don’t have that much cash right now, but their 50% off sale is still going on on the website, so i’m definitely going to order this, this and this before the sale is up. i called and they said that the sale ended sunday, but bah! i will overcome!
i also have been seriously regretting all of the time i seem to have wasted over break. i didn’t read the books all the books that i got for christmas, i didn’t do nearly as much writing or art as i had wanted and i haven’t really gotten into the swing with taking pictures with my newly adapted 35mm holga. but, i did have fun and seemed to have spent way too much money. haha. isn’t that the case with everything though?